MTA Chief Operating Officer Ken McDonald Resigns

Ken McDonald, in the middle with his hands resting on the rail, at the scene of last night's streetcar crash. Photo by Bryan Goebel.

We heard rumblings from sources in the days following the West Portal Muni crash that Ken McDonald, Muni's Chief Operating Officer, had been reassigned by MTA Chief Nat Ford. The agency never confirmed the rumor but this just in: McDonald has submitted his resignation with "mixed emotions." Read his resignation letter here (PDF). His last day at the agency will be October 9th.

In the letter, McDonald makes it a point to list his successes, stressing that in his three-year tenure Muni collisions decreased 28 percent while derailments fell by 48 percent.

"I truly believe those successes outweigh the challenges and from an operational vantage point the agency is in better position than it was three years ago," he wrote.

Meantime, safety issues are expected to dominate this afternoon's MTA Board meeting, especially in light of yesterday's streetcar crash. We'll be tweeting from the meeting.

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Word On The Street

“The fact we cannot say definitively that ticketing cyclists for not making full and complete stops necessarily decreases injuries or otherwise reduces collisions gets to the very heart of the issue: Sanford's impending crackdown is not data-driven...
And all the while, this crackdown will better enable motorists near and far to continue, without consequences, to commit the five traffic violations that the data clearly shows us are causing the greatest harm to the most road users.
Bias, bias, bias.”